Burning Sun scandal
The Burning Sun scandal is a 2019 entertainment and sex scandal in Seoul, South Korea which involved several celebrities, including Korean idols of popular K-pop groups, and police officials. It was the largest scandal to hit the K-pop industry, and impacted the image of its artists. The allegations of sex crimes involved added to the country's "epidemic" of what is called molka, a Korean word for the online distribution of unconsented sex videos taken of women, and the scandal became fodder for political parties, who argued over how to handle it. What Happened January 28, Kim Sang-Kyo assault at Burning Sun reported The first public awareness of the Burning Sun scandal was on January 28, 2019, when MBC Newsdesk reported on an alleged assault of a 29-year-old clubgoer, Kim Sang-Kyo, at the Burning Sun nightclub. Kim said he was attempting to help a woman who was being sexually harassed, but staff had assaulted him. When the Yeoksam police arrived, he was arrested as the assailant and booked on seven charges, including criminal battery, an indecent act, defamation and the obstruction of the performance of official duties. He said the police assaulted him after he was placed under arrest. The incident occurred on November 24, 2018, but came to media attention in January 2019, after Kim posted a petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website detailing his assault by Burning Sun staffers and mistreatment by police; and further stating that staffers and the club drugged female customers and had a corrupt relationship with district police. Another current petition on the website called for the investigation of the club scene, in general, and druggings that were occurring there. Cheong Wa Dae is a petition website based on former President Obama's We the People, and which was launched in August 2017, on President Moon's 100th day in office. Kim's petition had received the benchmark 200,000 signatures prompting an official response. Initial allegations at Burning Sun During the early stages, the scandal evolved around Kim's complaint against the Burning Sun nightclub, including any possible crimes that may have occurred there, and the identities of responsible parties. The initial January 28 report of the Kim incident, by MBC Newsdesk, had included two CCTV videos of the club's security footage purportedly showing Kim's assault inside the club, and a second one showing a woman being dragged down a hallway, and alleged to have been drugged. A KBS report soon added that an alleged former employee had talked about illegal drug use in the club's VIP rooms. An additional report by MBC, on February 14, included allegations of a purported VIP client of the club, who said staff solicited him in text messages, offering women who were available for sex, after readying them with date rape drugs. He claimed to have received a video clip from staff, showing "an intoxicated woman being raped". By January 31, 2019, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) had taken charge of the investigation, which included allegations of local Gangnam police corruption and collusion with the club's owners. It had assigned a team to look into the club's claims of sexual violence, drug use, Kim's arrest and any connection with the local police station. The SMPA said their quick response and follow-up investigation was due to media attention garnered by the Big Bang K-pop group member Seungri's affiliation with the club. They also said they had expanded their probe of drug-related allegations to all Gangnam clubs, due to club marketing by independent "merchandisers" or "MDs" for many different clubs. Seungri's involvement, if any, and his relationship to the nightclub, immediately became a hot media issue. Yang Hyun-suk, the chief of his agency, YG Entertainment, released a statement on January 31, that Seungri had been at the club on November 28, but left before Kim's incident occurred. He also said Seungri's recent resignation as a senior director of the club was due to his upcoming military enlistment. Seungri's delayed response to the controversy was in an Instagram statement on February 2, stating that he was not present at the club during Kim's alleged assault, had belatedly heard about it, and served as an executive director for the club and had no part in the club's operation or management. Still, he, however, apologized that he had not taken responsibility from the beginning. February 26, first KakaoTalk messages revealed On February 26, 2019, SBS FunE released the first portions of the KakaoTalk recordings that would become crucial in the investigation, saying their origin was an anonymous source which had turned them over to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission on February 22. The recordings dated back to 2015, and seemed to implicate Seungri with allegations that he had directed Burning Sun staff to arrange prostitutes for foreign investors who were coming to Seoul, at another Gangnam nightclub. The source had cited possible police cooperation as the reason for not turning them over directly to the police. The police held a press conference on March 4, saying they had not seen the original, unedited KakaoTalk messages and doubted their veracity, just before an SBS report detailing how they had obtained them. On February 27, Seungri was questioned by the SMPA, a lengthy interview that lasted overnight and included a drug test. Seungri denied allegations of attempts to buy sex for potential foreign investors (or sex for business favours) and any knowledge of the KakaoTalk messages, which had been disclosed by media, conversations he allegedly had with a Burning Sun co-founder and another of its employees about such arrangements; and he denied drug use. Media reports said that various nightclubs were used for the lobbying, including one named Arena, where Seungri allegedly arranged sexual favours for investors. In one alleged chat conversation between Seungri and his business partners in December 2015, Seungri says, "Give B (the anonymous investor) everything she wants. Get a hold of the main rooms 3 and 4 at the club Arena. We have guests from Taiwan". After confirming arrangements with a man surnamed Kim, Seungri asked, “And what about the girls? them the easy girls.” Yoo answered, “I’m getting the prostitutes ready, so if you get two prostitutes, then lead them to the hotel rooms. Two is good?” Seungri booked On March 10, Seungri was booked on sex bribery charges. The following day, he resigned from entertainment on his Instagram account, stating that he had caused a "societal disturbance" and said he would cooperate with the investigation. March 11, second KakaoTalk messages revealed The source of the KakaoTalk messages was revealed to be a lawyer, Bang Jung-Hyun, on March 11, when he was interviewed on SBS Eight O'Clock News. He had obtained the messages from a whistleblower or "anonymous source", possibly a technician at a phone repair shop, where singer and entertainer Jung Joon-young had dropped his phone off for repairs. The whistleblower had sent an email to Bang, of thousands of chats taken from Jung's phone, which took place over eight months between 2015 and 2016. When the Burning Sun scandal started, the phone messages were forwarded to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and SBS FunE; and the secretly filmed sex tapes and other chat messages on Jung's phone became public. During the SBS interview, the integrity of the chat room file was discussed. It was said to have a tamper-proof device, technically a hash-code verification, showing that the file had not been manipulated; and could stand as circumstantial evidence to seek more evidence. Bang, an economics graduate of Seoul National University, and a practicing lawyer, said of the chats, "Their conversations showed that there were not only sex crimes by celebrities, but also a cosy relationship between them and top police officers,” and “It is someone higher up than Gangnam Police Precinct chief.” Also, on Monday, March 11, due to possible police involvement, the Commission, a watchdog agency, turned the records over to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea, asking them to investigate the scandal instead of the police. Within a week, the case was transferred to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office who said they would assign a team to direct the SMPA's investigation. Also, due to the new allegations of possible police misconduct, on March 14, Commissioner Min Gap-Ryong of the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) reported to the Ministry of Public Safety and Security at the National Assembly, that “A total of 126 agents will be assigned to investigate the nightclub Burning Sun, the assault at Club Arena, drug use, ties with the police, and allegations of brokering prostitution, filming and distributing illegal videos, among other things". President Moon ordered an investigation of the scandal on March 18, to include two past sex scandal cases; the first one involved a former vice justice minister, Kim Hak-Ui, who was cleared of a scandal in 2013, but had new allegations of raping women and appearing in sex videos with them. The second one was the 2009 suicide of rookie actress Jang Ja-Yeon, whose suicide note said she was forced to have sex with as many as thirty men by her entertainment agency. The handling of those cases had been criticised for non-impartiality due to the involvement of high-profile figures. He said, "The current leadership of the prosecution and police should stake the fate of their organizations with responsibility on uncovering the truth and becoming a law enforcement agency that can reveal its shameful acts so as to regain trust," and "I am stressing that if we cannot fix it, we cannot call this society a just one." Ha Hyun-ock, a deputy financial news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo likened the burgeoning events to the mafia, with allegations of "drug dealing, prostitution, violence, tax evasion and collusion with police". He referred to the assessment Bang brought up on the SBS news program, of its being the beginning of a Korean mafia, with K-pop's popularity creating celebrities of new money and status, who hobnob with business and government connections. The phone belonged to Jung, who was in Los Angeles filming for another television show when the news of his involvement in the chatrooms reached him. He hurriedly returned to Seoul on Tuesday evening, March 12, where he was booked as a suspect on charges of illegal hidden camera filming and sharing, accused of taping ten or more women. Seungri was reportedly a member of one of Jung's chatrooms. Chat room messages first released by SBS TV were translated to English and shared by other media, including The Korea Times. Some of the conversation they translated for April 17, 2016, was as follows: Kim 1 "Anybody wants porn?", Choi "Me", Kim 1 (Kim sends the video), Choi "Wait, she is fainted.", Kim 1 "So what?" Choi: "I want to see her alive (in the video).", Kim 1 "Then I couldn't have turned on the flash." Jung "You raped her. (Laughs)". In another alleged chat conversation in The Washington Post, Jung said, “Let’s all get together online, hit the strip bar and rape them in the car.” Another member responded, “Our lives are like a movie. We have done so many things that could put us in jail. We just haven’t killed anyone." Later on Tuesday, March 12, Jung released a statement saying, "I admit to all my crimes", and resigned from all his entertainment work; a day following Seungri's resignation. Jung said, "I filmed women without their consent and shared it in a chatroom, and while I was doing so I didn't feel a great sense of guilt," and apologised to his victims. Jung had previously been investigated over similar charges in August 2016 and December 2018. In the 2016 hidden camera case, his victim, an ex-girlfriend, withdrew her complaint of his filming them having sex, without her consent. Still, a March 13, SBS report had added allegations of possible police tampering with the case. Seungri's and Jung's inter-locking scandals were combined in public televised view when both were called into the SMPA station on March 14, with more than 100 journalists gathered for Jung's 10 a.m. appearance. It consisted of his arrival, and apology, before entering the station for questioning and a drug test; followed similarly by Seungri, some three hours later. Police also questioned Seungri's business partner and Yuri Holdings CEO Yoo In-Seok. Seungri exited first, at around 6:15 a.m. on March 15, some 16 hours later, and he told reporters, as he exited, that he would be putting in a request to delay his mandatory military service later in the month. Jung exited, not an hour later, after his 21-hour interrogation, and told reporters he had handed in his "golden phone," a public nickname his second mobile phone had gained in a 2016 talk show. On the same date, March 14, two other Korean idols resigned from entertainment after allegations they were involved in Jung's chatrooms. They were Yong Jun-Hyung, age 29, of K-pop boy band Highlight, and Choi Jong-hoon of rock band F.T. Island. Yong admitted to viewing a sex video recorded without the woman's permission and participating in "inappropriate conversations" about it, saying, “All these behaviours were extremely unethical, and I was stupid". Choi had been a member of one of the chatrooms that were of immediate interest in media reports and the investigation, a group of eight: Seungri, Jung, Choi, Yoo In-Seok, and four non-celebrities. In one conversation, Choi allegedly detailed his drunk driving incident from 2016, and which was reportedly kept out of media coverage due to help from a police official, surnamed Yoon. Choi was questioned on March 16, also under allegations of secretly filming and sharing videos. The next day, March 15, another Korean idol, Lee Jong-hyun, age 29, of rock band CNBLUE, presently serving in the military, made his admission through a statement from his agency, FNC Entertainment. Lee said that he had viewed Jung's sex videos in a chat group and had made disparaging remarks, talking about women as sexual objects. The admission followed a prior denial on his part, and followed an SBS report of an alleged KakaoTalk conversation he had with Jung; during which Lee asks for "young", "pretty" and "kind" women he can play with and have sex with; and to which Jung responded, "Who do you want?" Other celebrities affected by the scandal were actors Cha Tae-Hyun and comedian Kim Jun-ho, cast members on 2 Days & 1 Night with Jung, who resigned from the entertainment industry on March 16, after the chatroom conversations revealed allegations of their gambling on golf, in large amounts. Actress Park Han-Byul, who married Yoo, of Yuri Holdings, in 2017, first stated that she knew nothing more than his being Seungri's business partner, but, made a public apology on March 19, after it was reported that she and her husband had played golf previously with the high-ranking police official under investigation for collusion with the nightclubs in the scandal. She said she would not leave a significant role in the television drama Love in Sadness, despite calls from some viewers for her to do so. Jung Joon-young arrested Jung was arrested on March 21, for charges under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes. He was charged with crimes against at least ten victims, of illegally filming and distributing sex videos, which he shared with eight people in a 2015 chat group. Others in the group were Seungri and Choi. Jung admitted to the charges and apologised at the hearing for his arrest at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, and was taken to the SMPA Jongno Police Station. On March 29, he was transferred from the police station again to the prosecution for referral of an indictment, and he was indicted on April 17. April 2, third KakaoTalk messages revealed At the beginning of April, two more Korean idols were added to the list of KakaoTalk chatroom participants. On April 2, 2019, SMPA issued a summons for soloist, Roy Kim, who they said appeared in the illegal chatroom with Jung, Seungri and Choi, and booked him the following day for distributing an obscene photo in the chatroom, which he denied taking himself, and which investigators agreed was likely the case. His agency coordinated his return from his U.S. schooling, and SMPA questioned him on April 10. On April 5, another soloist, Eddy Kim, not related to Roy Kim, was booked as part of the chat group, for circulating an illegally taken a photograph or more than one, the number was not specified. On April 3, the agency for Kangin of boy band Super Junior, Label SJ, released a statement admitting that Kangin had been a member of Jung's chatroom, while working together on a TV show three years prior, and denied any illegal activity on his part. On April 4, police said that Kangin, Jeong Jin-Woon of boy band 2AM, and model Lee Cheol-woo were members of the chatrooms, but they had no plans to question them yet. The three celebrities had been cast members with Jung on the 2016 TV show Hitmaker. An early April police tally said that seven chatroom members had been booked for disseminating spycam content; and there were a total of 23 different groups or one-on-one chatrooms, with 16 participants. Included in the bookings and instances of occurrences were: Jung, 13; Choi, 3; and Seungri, 1. Two arrests included Jung's and a former Burning Sun employee's, surnamed Kim. Seungri and Yoo were charged under allegations of embezzlement at the Monkey Museum club, and police had searched the offices of Junwon Industries, a major shareholder in Burning Sun Entertainment, which operated Burning Sun and Yuri Holdings, and Choi Tae-young, CEO of Junwon Industries, along with Seungri and Yoo, was booked on charges of embezzlement. In the sex-video case, combined with Jung's arrest, a probe of five others was nearly completed; and in drug-related offences, they had apprehended 59 people, with 11 under arrest. Six incumbent police officers were being investigated for police misconduct, and one former officer had been arrested and charged with brokering a case of an underage clubgoer. In a separate police case, Hwang Ha-na, age 31, the granddaughter of the chaebol founder of Namyang Dairy Products, was arrested on drug use charges. Hwang had been detained and exonerated in a 2015 case of crystal meth use, which was under reinvestigation for possible bribery, and had allegedly taken illegal drugs with a Burning Sun employee before the arrest. April 19–present First chat group victim files police complaint, arrests and trial On April 19, the first victim complaint against chat group members, since the beginning of the scandal, was filed on Jung, Choi and three others, former employees of the Burning Sun and YG Entertainment, and a businessman. The victim alleged she was raped in a hotel room in 2016, while she was passed out, and the incident was filmed by the group. Her complaint followed an April 11 interview of lawyer Bang on JTBC's Lee Gyu-Yeon's Spotlight, where he said there were about ten photos and videos from the chatrooms that showed forced sexual assaults, sometimes by multiple members of the chat group. He had met with some of the women from the videos, who were unaware of what had happened to them, perhaps due to having been drugged. On April 23, SMPA began an investigation into the complainant's allegations, which reportedly occurred at a hotel in Daegu in March 2016, after a fan signing event for Jung; and a second similar rape case at a resort in Hongcheon in January 2016, where another alleged victim travelled with chat group members, including Jung and Choi. SMPA said they were aware of group rape after examining the videos, but had not been able to identify the victims until they came forward. The cases were assigned to the SMPA's Women and Juvenile Affairs Division, who have expertise in crimes against women, including sexual assault. Choi Jong-hoon was arrested on May 9 for allegations of group sexual assault with four members of Jung's chat group in March 2016; after appearing at a hearing with two others and denying the charges against him. Another male, surname Kwon, was also arrested; with both Choi and Kwon charged under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes. Jung, who was still under police custody, pled guilty to 11 cases of the illicit filming and sharing at a May 10 pretrial hearing, where he offered to settle with the victims. He was being investigated separately in the gang-rape case, where he, like Choi, denied allegations. On May 17, SMPA referred to the gang rape case of the five chat group members to prosecutors, recommending indictments on charges of particular rape. On June 5, after accusations, the Seoul Central District Court merged the trials for the five previously accused, Jung, Choi, Kwon, a Burning Sun MD named Kim, and an entertainment director named Heo, to include two charges of gang rapes of two victims in 2016, in Hongcheon in January, and Daegu in March. The five appeared at a June 27 hearing and denied the rape charges. At the first trial hearing on July 16, which included the illegal filming and sharing and rape charges, Jung and Kwon admitted to having sex but denied rape, and Choi denied having sex. Jung's lawyer submitted a statement contesting the legality of evidence obtained from the KakaoTalk messages in violation of the Personal Information Protection Act. The court specified five victims, two reference witnesses, a period for the alleged illegal photography from November 2015 to June 2016, the dates of the alleged rapes on January 9, and March 20, 2016; and the need for confidentiality of the victims. The next trial dates, on August 19, August 26, September 2, September 16, September 23, October 7 and October 21 were closed to the public. Seungri's business partner admits to hiring prostitutes, and more admissions On May 14, Seungri and Yoo appeared at morning hearings for requested arrest warrants, to include pre-trial detention, on charges of embezzlement from the Burning Sun club and arranging sexual services for foreign investors; for violations of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes and the Act on the Punishment of Arrangement of Commercial Sex Acts, etc.; along with a new charge that Seungri had paid for sexual services himself. Seungri admitted that he received illicit sex services but denied all other allegations at the Seoul Central District Court hearing, and was led to a holding cell in ropes to await the decision, which came later in the evening, when both arrest warrants were denied, with the court citing "room for dispute" over the alleged embezzlement of around 530 million won (US$445,700) in total from the Burning Sun, and said the possibility of destroying evidence was slim. SMPA referred Seungri's case to prosecutors on June 25, with charges related to 1.1 billion won (US$951,000) in embezzlement, destruction of evidence, violation of laws on sex trade, sexual crimes and food hygiene. Allegations included procuring prostitutes for himself and others from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan from December 2015 to January 2016; and the circulation of spycam and sex videos, filmed without consent, along with other chat group members. His business partner Yoo was also referred to prosecutors for procuring prostitutes. MBC TV's May 27 show Straight introduced new allegations and another celebrity name to the scandal. It alleged that YG Entertainment's founder Yang Hyun-suk had arranged sexual services for foreign investors in July 2014, which he and the company denied. SMPA began an investigation based on the show's details of an alleged dinner meeting in Gangnam and a trip to a nightclub NB, affiliated with Yang, that included Yang, age 50, a Malaysian fugitive Jho Low, age 38, a Thai national named Bob (Chavanos Rattakul), a YG singer, a Madam Jung, Hwang Ha-na; and as many as 10 prostitutes, who allegedly provided sexual services at the nightclub. Singer PSY, age 42, who was with YG Entertainment at the time, released a statement that he had introduced his friend Jho Low to Yang and admitted that he and Yang had been invited to the dinner and drinks with Low and the other man. Allegations also referenced a December 2018 rape complaint at the Burning Sun against Rattakul, one of the foreign investors also affiliated with Seungri, and who had been summoned by police. In June, Yang was questioned by police about the prostitution allegations but not taken in as a suspect, and PSY was questioned as a witness about the July 2014 incident, which statute of limitations was soon to expire. On July 8, Madam Jung, who had been questioned by police six times, was interviewed on MBC's Straight and claimed Yang had sought her help for another trip for foreign investors in October 2014, and had paid her 200 million won (US$170,000), which was provided by Jho Low, for ten call girls to accompany Southeast Asian investors to Monaco. Jung said she was aggrieved at YG's denials, as she had done only what Yang had "ordered" her to do. On July 17, SMPA reported having booked Yang for allegations of arranging sexual services for the foreign investors in 2014, along with three more suspects for prostitution allegations; but dropped the charges against Yang on September 20, stating that they had failed to prove them. A prior allegation of Seungri's possible gambling overseas was reignited by an August 9, JTBC report alleging instances of Yang and Seungri having gambled up to 1 to 2 billion won at the MGM Grand Las Vegas on past occasions. SMPA said they were examining Yang's financial records for possible illegal foreign exchange transactions that may have been used for his alleged gambling, which is prohibited for South Koreans at home and abroad. On August 14, both Yang and Seungri were booked on charges of habitual gambling, and by August 20, charges included illegal foreign trade transactions and a travel ban had been imposed. On August 28 and 29, both were questioned, and Seungri admitted to gambling but denied allegations of illegally securing funds, in violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. Seungri was questioned again on September 24 and Yang on October 1. In the first case with allegations of police collusion, a former Gangnam police officer surnamed Kang, age 44, was sentenced to one year in prison on August 14. During the trial co-CEO Lee Sung-Hyun testified that he paid 20 million won (US$17,000) to Kang to cover for a minor clubgoer incident at the Burning Sun and had not discussed the arrangements with Seungri. In drug-related cases, on August 22, co-CEO Lee Moon-ho received a suspended sentence of three years probation and community service for a year and a half prison term in a routine drug use case dating from 2018 to February 2019, where he pled guilty. A senior police official, Yoon Gyu-Geun, age 49, referred to as the "police chief" in the chatrooms, was arrested on October 10, on charges of accepting bribes and misuse of power, among others, following a search at his KNPA office in September. Yoon was referred for prosecution in June for allegedly informing Seungri and Yoo In-Seok of police crackdowns, but the late search and focus on Yoon was questioned by a The Korea Times report by Lee Suh-Yoon as possibly being related to his having worked in the Blue House in 2017 under Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who was being investigated in a separate case. A businessman named Jeong, a possible link between Yoon and Yoo was arrested earlier on embezzlement charges. Yoon was indicted on October 29, on charges of bribery, obstruction of business, and concealing evidence, among others, related to allegations of attempting to cover up illegalities at the Burning Sun and other companies run by Seungri and Yoo. Yoon is also alleged to have received unlisted stocks from businessman Jeong about the case; while Jeong is suspected of being tied to illicit financial transactions in the separate case against ex-Justice Minister Cho. Other investigations On July 9, the government responded with no findings for an April 11 Cheong Wa Dae petition which detailed new allegations at the Burning Sun club, followed by a report on MBC TV's Straight. Witnesses interviewed on the program alleged "underage sex trafficking and violent sexual abuse of women", claiming VIP rooms at the club and offsite were set up for customers, including those from upper-class Korean families, and a special clean-up crew called the "incinerators" were employed to remove blood and incriminating evidence. The petition which received the required signatures, asked for the investigation of an alleged group rape by six men in one of the VIP rooms, of a woman who had been given GHB, called "mulpong" in South Korea. After a month's delay, KNPA Commissioner Min responded that the allegations of sexual abuse and drug use in the VIP rooms, per the petition, were not confirmed. He added, "I will humbly accept the public's criticism that the results of the investigation are insufficient in relation to the Burning Sun case". In late June, BBC News reporter Laura Bicker shared similar allegations of Gangnam's nightlife she had gathered from witnesses, "in its glitzy nightclubs, women have been drugged to order by powerful men and raped, and that underage girls are being sexually exploited for profit". She spoke to clubgoers, employees and victims; and viewed a video of a purported gang rape, by three men, of a woman who appeared unconscious. On July 17, SMPA held a meeting at the Seodaemun-gu police offices to discuss a "Second Burning Sun Club Opening", after a KBS report detailed problems at a new club in the Gangnam area, opened by a former sales executive and employees of the Burning Sun club, just four months after it closed down. The report said that a female employee had been sexually harassed in a new chat group of about 30 employees, and the current club's sales manager, a previous employee of the Burning Sun, had apologised for the situation. A police official said their meeting was held to prevent recurrences of sex and drug-related problems that had happened at the Burning Sun. Also, as part of an anti-corruption initiative established at the troubled Gangnam Police Station, SMPA announced unprecedented open recruitment just for that police station in mid-July, after 164 officers were transferred to other departments. A newly formed three-month joint response team was also set up to investigate illegal club activity in Gangnam, from August through October, to prevent a new Burning Sun incident. On September 10, SMPA's Cyber Security Division referred charges of defamation and pornography for twelve participants in an investigation of media personnel which began on May 3. A Cheong Wa Dae petition was filed, alleging that a chat group of about 200 reporters, producers and media staffers had shared illicit video clips of incidents that had occurred at the Burning Sun, as well as information about brothels and prostitutes. A Chosun Ilbo headline on April 25, "Seung-ri's Business Partner Admits Pimping", followed Seungri and Yoo's new questioning by SMPA, in which Seungri continued to deny any involvement with prostitution, and Yoo finally admitted that he supplied prostitutes to six or more Japanese investors at their Gangnam nightclub in December 2015. SMPA had paper trails of money transactions, a YG Entertainment credit card payment by Seungri and a wire transfer by Yoo, and chat room conversations the two had with Jung about the arrangements; and had booked 17 prostitutes and pimps related to the incidents. Seungri was summoned for questioning about alleged embezzlement of the Burning Sun club's funds for the first time, on May 2, following sixteen prior interrogations about his alleged arrangement of sexual services for investors. Category:Awful Moments in Music History Category:2019 Category:Controversies Category:Events Category:2018 Category:2010s